


Percy discovers Sea Shanties Tiktok

by dregsofthebarrel



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson Fluff, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Nico di Angelo & Leo Valdez Friendship, Nico di Angelo & Percy Jackson Friendship, Nico di Angelo Sings, Percy Jackson Sings, Sea Shanties, Sea Shanties Tik Tok Challenge, TikTok, Whales
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28944912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dregsofthebarrel/pseuds/dregsofthebarrel
Summary: While at Camp Half-Blood for the summer Percy discovers the Sea Shanty TikTok trend and despite his lackluster singing skills decides to create his own version with the help of Nico and Leo as well as some camera work by Annabeth.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 13
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This ignores the fact that demigods can't have cell phones but I just had fun imagining Percy discovering this new TikTok trend, I hope you enjoy reading it!

Annabeth finds Percy hunched over his phone at the dining pavilion. His jeans are muddy, and his sneakers are leaving mud on the marble ground. Calling out Annabeth is surprised to not get a response from him, as she walks closer she sees Leo and Nico also at the tables hunched around his phone. Oh no, Annabeth thinks to herself, this combination is never good. Standing behind Percy she can hear but not see what they are watching. Hearing a deep voice with a Scottish accent, she is not sure she wants to see it. 

“ANNABETH YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS.” Percy says with an incredible amount of enthusiasm. She hadn’t seen him this excited since they had last visited his apartment and Sally made blue cookies. Leo and Nico are still watching the phone on the table while Percy has twisted on the bench to talk to Annabeth. “Its Sea Shanties!” He shouts as if Annabeth had never heard of one before. “I love it so much,” he says wistfully and turns around to watch the end of the video. The next one starts playing and it’s a duet with the original and a guy with a beard singing in a white sweater, “How does his voice get so low?” Nico asks. “I don’t know,” Leo answers in wonder. 

Percy stands up and slams his open hands on the table startling Nico and Leo who look away from the video, “We are going to do our own version.” Turning and pointing at Leo, “We need a ship, Nico,” he turns the other way to point at Nico, “Do you think you have any skeletons who want to help?” Nico grins and runs away, probably to McDonalds to get some offerings. Leo looks like he’s thinking, “I’ve got an idea, meet me at the lake in fifteen minutes.” Then Leo is in the wind, although Annabeth can track him from the faint whiffs of smoke he is letting off as he goes down the path. 

“Hey, are you any good at taking pictures? Do you cut people’s heads off in photos?” Percy asks Annabeth as he starts to walk towards the lake, not waiting for an answer he continues on, “Do you know if Frank is around? I need a whale.” He’s off before Annabeth answers and she has to lightly jog to catch up with him. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the arena for sword fighting?” Annabeth asks, her hair swinging behind her as she picks up the pace to keep up with him. It is hot outside today and she is already sweating just trying to keep pace.

“Well, I beat everyone, so I ended up at the dining pavilion but then Nico showed up trying to escape Leo and then Leo showed up looking for Nico. And then we found the sea shanties video. It feels like my birthright. I think it is my birthright?” While Annabeth struggles to follow his rapid fire stream of consciousness answers she just smiles and follows knowing what will happen will either be a disaster or hilarious, probably both if she knows her boyfriend well. 

Reaching the beach Annabeth sees that Leo has already arrived, but he’s not actually on the beach. Sailing towards them, Leo stands on the prow of a wooden sailboat, the sails billow out against the single mast. She can hear faint yelling which is expected from Leo most of the time, when he gets close enough she can finally make out what he is saying, “I don’t know how to sail!” Annabeth isn’t surprised and sits down on the sand to see how this plays out. Percy figures it out at about the same time and jumps into the lake to start swimming to Leo’s rescue. How did he even get it going or on the water? Annabeth wonders but then realizes this whole camp is filled with enablers, nobody asked him if he could sail, they all probably just helped him get it out on the water and set him loose. As Leo got closer, and louder, she could see that several of the lines were not tied down and merely fluttering in the wind. Percy had almost made his way to the sailboat and she was wondering how he would get aboard when he put out an arm and caught a line. Yelling at the top of his lungs he pulled himself out of the water and started to climb the rope. Annabeth had heard a lot of his screams by now, the scared, the angry, the desperate and she knew these were happy screams. The yell of a teenage boy having fun and letting lose.

By the time he made it on deck the sailboat was close enough to see the celestial bronze gunwales and the mounted crossbows. The Hephaestus cabin must have been testing out navy weapons on a smaller vessel before installing them on Camp Half-Blood’s larger ships. 

Annabeth lost sight of Percy but the boat slowed down, she did not find this unusual. Shenanigans on ships were sort of his thing, and she liked seeing him happy like this, he deserved it after everything he had done for the Olympians. With Percy on board Leo has stopped yelling. Bobbing in the gentle swells, Annabeth sees a splash as both Leo and Percy dive back into the water, swimming for the beach and leaving the sailboat anchored and empty. 

Leo is a solid but slow swimmer and is quickly left behind by Percy’s quick and expert strokes. As Percy emerges from the lake water, clothing dry with wet hair, he shakes his head like a wet dog and makes sure to splash Annabeth, she screams and throws handfuls of sand at him. He leaves his hair purposefully wet every time just to get her, Annabeth pretends to hate it but secretly loves it.

Nico walks up as Leo emerges from the lake soaking wet. Leo takes off his shirt and attempts to throw it at Nico only to find it absorbed by shadows as it neared Nico’s outreached hand. “Hey, that was my favorite shirt,” Leo called out in frustration. 

“It had like five holes in it,” Nico states in a monotone with a hint of a smile, “I got what you need.” With his other hand he held up a couple of bags of McDonalds while Leo grumbled to himself, “It was the least holey of all my shirts.” 

Clapping his hands together and rubbing them Percy gathered the group as if he was sharing a big secret, “We are going to reenact the Sea Shanty. So, I need a whale, a Captain, Sugar and Rum and some dead men.” Percy’s eyes were lit up with excitement and his hair flopped over each time he turned his head quickly. “Leo, can you be my whale?” Leo who Annabeth didn’t really take for acting like an animal, given it was more Frank’s thing, merely nodded. He didn’t look as upset by his role as Annabeth would have expected. “I speak whale.” Is all he said, and Annabeth realized why he was not upset. Percy nodded as if that made perfect since, although to him it probably did, after all, he also spoke whale. 

Annabeth tuned the rest of the plans out as she sat back on the sand enjoying the chaos and warm summer sun. As time passed and the daily activities finished up for the day Will and a few other campers came by to sit with her and observe the scene that was about to unfold, leaning over Will whispered to Annabeth, “You know, I’ve only seen Nico on a boat once, he seems more like a land lover to me. I never really imaged he would get on one willingly.” Annabeth looked over to Nico standing near the edge of the water, he was wearing black jeans despite the heat, vans and his black Camp Half-Blood shirt. She laughed thinking back to what Piper had said about his days aboard the Argo II. “I’m sure this is going to be interesting.” Annabeth knew he spent most of his days aboard the Argo II on the mast as a lookout and she couldn’t image him tying knots or raising a sail. It seemed a little too hands on for his typical approach. Then again, she didn’t know what Percy needed skeletons for either. 

The sun was starting to set when Percy gave a taxicab whistle to get her attention. Looking up she saw him waving her over, “That’s my cue,” she said chuckling to Will. Standing up and brushing sand from her shorts she walked over to Leo and Nico leaving Will with the other campers on the beach. Leo was still shirtless and since their planning began, Percy had also lost his shirt, shoes and socks. She didn’t see them on the sand, but this was a problem he ran into often when hanging out on the beach and so she wouldn’t be surprised to find him at the camp store the next day purchasing a new orange shirt and some socks. The shoes always seemed to turn up. Nico was still fully dressed but with a grin that Annabeth had not seen before and she wasn’t sure she wanted to ever see it again. A smiling Nico was an unnerving sight. What were they about to do? 

Percy handed her his phone, “If you stand right here, you should be able to get everything in one shot, we’ve only got one go of this, Nico says two rounds of skeletons will be out of the question.” Annabeth opened her mouth to ask a question that would hopefully make sense of that statement but merely closed it before saying anything, what answer could possibly change the outcome of the next five minutes? 

It was the golden hour with the sun perfectly highlighting the water and the small sailboat that was still anchored a little ways out from the beach. Annabeth clicks record and gives Percy a thumbs up, who grins at her from his position on the beach and then dives into the water. Looking on the phone screen she realizes that both Nico and Leo have disappeared. 

Holding her arm steady Annabeth squints wondering when they will begin, and before the thought even finishes she hears the warbling notes of Percy’s voice as he begins to sing. As if a narrator of the sea, he rises out of the water, shirtless and chest gleaming with droplets of water that catch in the setting sun perfectly so they glow. It looks magically and Annabeth gasps and only to hold back her laughter as Percy’s unsteady voice contrasts with the picture perfect image in front of her. 

“There once was a ship that put to sea, And the name of that ship was the Billy o’ Tea, The winds below hard, her bow dipped down, Blow my bully boys, blue,” he sang and in time with his singing the anchored sailboat tipped and pulled down, at the end of the line she heard a loud, “huh” come from the deck were Nico was standing at the prow, looking majestic with his hair blowing in the breeze and one foot on the gunwale. Behind him she could see a crew of skeletons, moving in time to the song, “Soon may the Wellerman come, To bring us sugar and tea and rum, one day, when the tonguing’ is done, We’ll take our leave and go” Annabeth zoomed in on Nico as he sang in a surprisingly steady and deep voice and the skeletons left their chores behind to move in behind him. 

Percy continued to stand on the water and sing alone with Nico, harmonizing the chorus. Nico dropped out when the next verse began and Annabeth zoomed back out to get a full shot, “She had not been two weeks from shore, when down on her right a whale bore, the captain called all hands and swore, he’d take that whale in tow,” his voice grew stronger with each line. Nico shouted “huh” from the boat just as the skeletons tossed rope into the water, as if they were going to tow the whale themselves. Nico and Percy then began again together, “Soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum, One day, when the tonguing’ is done, we’ll take our leave and go.” A group of skeletons had broken off from the ones holding the ropes and these were standing behind Nico doing dance moves, their movements were jerky due to their lack of muscles but what they lacked in grace they made up for in sheer flexibility contorting their bodies in ways a normal person should never move. It looked like they were trying to do many different tik tok dances at once and the effect was chaotic. “Before the boat had hit the water, the whale’s tail came up and caught her, all hands to the side, harpooned and fought her, when she dived down below, huh!” This time the audience from the beach joined in on the huh, as Percy summoned a wave that carried Nico overboard. 

At the top of his lungs Percy continued on and his voice was joined by those behind her, the Apollo kids perfectly harmonizing with him, “Soon may the Wellerman come, tonguing’ us sugar and tea and rum, One day, when the tonguing’ is done, we’ll take our leave and go,” Percy continued on to the next verse alone, “No line was cut, no whale was freed, An the captain’s mind was not on greed, but he belonged to the whaleman’s creed, she took that ship in tow, huh!” With this latest, huh, Leo emerged from the water in what appeared to be a bubble shaped like a whale, Nico had still not emerged from the water and Annabeth was starting to get worried but held the camera steady. The song breaks from the original as Leo recites from inside the whale bubble his interpretation of whale song. It is perfectly horrible and completely out of tune but Leo does it with full enthusiasm and conviction getting cheers from the audience on the beach. 

With Leo’s solo complete Nico emerges from the water on a throne of packages made of water that appear to be sugar, tea and rum. Nico has somehow had a costume change underwater, now wearing a peacoat and Captain’s hat, as if the Captain of the Wellerman. For the final rendition of the chorus, all three join in at top volume, “Soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum, one day, when the tonguing’ is done, We’ll take our leave and go!” Nico and Leo’s voices fall away as Percy holds out the final go until the skeletons start to jump off the ship. They jump off like a drowned synchronized swimming team and Percy finishes as the last skeleton jumps into the water with a small splash. He bows and then lowers himself, Leo and Nico into the water. The scene is serene in drastic contrast to just moments before. The sailboat gentle floats with the setting sun glinting on the celestial bronze gunwale. 

Hitting the stop record button, Annabeth lowers the phone and stands in shocked silence. She knew to expect the unexpected, but this was beyond what she could imagine. The silence did not last long as Percy emerged first from the water and bowed soaking in the applause. Leo emerged next, looked happy but tired and finally a soggy Nico emerged, dripped water, his hair plastered to his face but looking a little less grumpy than usual. 

Once they finished their bows, Percy ran over to Annabeth, “Did you get it?” 

“Of course, I did,” Annabeth assures him, “That was… amazing.” Pushing his hair out of his eyes, Percy looks up at her, a crooked grin on his face, “Thanks.” The sun has just finished setting, and they can smell dinner wafting over from the dining pavilion. “Wow it got late really fast, I’m starving.” Percy says pulling Annabeth in for a quick kiss that tastes of sea salt and sunshine. Releasing her from his warm embrace Percy runs over to Nico and Leo to wrap them both in a hug. Annabeth sees Leo return it enthusiastically while Nico stiffens at first before slowly relaxing. Percy lets go but hangs his arms over each of their shoulders as the trio begins walking to dinner. 

Annabeth smiles to herself and feels someone approach her, “I don’t think I could have even imagined that if I wanted to,” she hears a gentle voice say. Looking over she sees Will smiling while looking at Nico, “I don’t think I could forget it,” she answers. “I never want to forget that,” Will says falling into a content silence as the two of them make their way to the dining pavilion in the waning light.

At campfire, despite it not being the Poseidon cabin’s turn to lead the songs, Percy leads the camp in a rousing rendition of his new favorite sea shanty. The rest of the camp loves it, and even though the Apollo cabin does not like being upstaged, they eventually concede to him as the sea shanty leader. 

Annabeth can’t find Percy after campfire but runs into Will as he gathers up his campers, “Have you seen Percy?” Will shakes his head and the flickering firelight throws his blonde hair into shadows. “Did you see?” Will asks holding up his phone, “They’ve gone viral.” Annabeth rolls her eyes as the two of them start walking around the campfire sending younger campers back to their cabins. “This is going to go straight to his head!” Annabeth groans, “It’s pretty epic have you seen the video?” Will asks. 

“No, I saw it in person,” Annabeth says unsure of herself, “Did the Mist do something to it?” Will’s smiling again, “No, that’s what makes it so perfect, you should just watch it again.” Will finds a young Apollo camper and puts his hand on their shoulder leading them from the campfire, “Night Annabeth,” he calls over his shoulder, Annabeth waves back and watches the pair walk away from the campfire into the dark path leading to the cabins. 

Annabeth goes to the Poseidon cabin to find Percy, peeking through the windows she sees him passed out in his bed, mouth open and drooling on his pillow. She smiles at the form of her sleeping boyfriend. In sleep the stress and the tension are gone from his face and he looks younger, much younger than someone who has held the weight of the world on their shoulders. 

Making her way to her cabin, she tucks in all her littlest campers and pulls out her own phone, about to search for Percy’s profile on Tiktok she finds no need, his video is everywhere, tapping on it, she falls into an easy sleep listening to the sound of Percy’s laughter and singing.


	2. Going Viral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy wakes up to discover the video has gone viral. There are some unforeseen consequences he had not considered.

Percy Jackson was sleeping peacefully when Nico’s shouts startled him awake. Being his neighbor, it happened time to time, they all had their nightmares, but this was one different. Jumping out of bed Percy searched his cabin for clothes, finding just a pair of boardshorts, he put them on and went outside to find his shoes thrown against the front of the cabin, slipping them on without socks he walked over to the Hades cabin. 

It was a warm summer morning, and the rest of the camp was asleep, either undisturbed by Nico’s yells or uninterested in figuring out their origin. Percy walked to Nico’s cabin enjoying the gentle breeze that would be gone by breakfast. As he got closer, Percy could make out more words, “HOW DARE YOU!” Nico shouted. Percy slowed down, was he in a fight with Will? Maybe this was private, and he should go back to his cabin and find his shirt. But Percy heard no response and the Italian curse words kept coming so Percy continued on. 

Standing in the doorway, Percy knocked but the door swung open on its own. Before Percy could say a word, Nico looked up. He looked like he hadn’t slept, which was how Nico always looked, regardless of how much sleep he actually got, but this morning the dark circles under his eyes were cast into shadows by the glow of his phone in his lap. Haunted by the internet. Percy froze in the doorway, as if he had done something wrong. 

“I. Am. Not. A. Whale.” Nico said with anger in his voice. 

“Whoa, okay, I never said you were,” Percy responded still standing shirtless in the doorway throwing his hands up in defense. Nico stayed silent and stared at Percy, his dark eyes boring into Percy’s light sea green eyes. Percy took it as a sign he could enter and went to look at Nico’s phone. While the letters were jumbled, he could see the Buzzfeed logo and the results of a quiz that said whale. “Oh, just take it again, I always have to take it a few times to get the right results.” Percy says a smile on his face. He sits down on the bed behind Nico and reaches over to click back to the start of the quiz. Percy squints and tries to read the title, “Which waterman…?” Percy looks over to Nico for assurance, “Which Wellerman character are you,” Nico reads. 

“Oh cool, that’s the video from yesterday.” Percy says unbothered by the coldness emanating from Nico. “Percy, its based on our video, it went viral.” Percy leans back from Nico’s phone, “wait really?” Nico rolls his eyes, “when was the last time you checked your phone, its got over one million views.”

“No way!” Percy shouts and stands up, ready to go grab his phone and check, walking over to the door he finds it blocked by Will. 

“What are you two shouting about?” He says groggily, “We don’t have to get up for another half hour.” Nico looks straight into Will’s eyes and completely deadpan states, “I am not a whale. I am the Wellerman.” He gets up from his bed, his skull pajama pants drooping over his feet and his oversized black shirt falling off his shoulder and goes to find the peacoat from yesterday, placed on his desk chair to dry out. Will looks confused and turns to Percy for an explanation but is only confused more when noticing Percy’s state of undressed, “Dude, where’s your shirt?” Percy looks down also surprised Will noticed, “I’m not sure…” turning to see Nico put on the peacoat, “Hey that’s my coat!” 

Nico just glares, “I am the Wellerman, it is my coat now.” Percy gives an exasperated look at Will, who sees that the situation is under control and is already heading back to his cabin for fifteen more minutes of sleep, “See you at breakfast,” he calls over his shoulder while Nico and Percy remain in a standoff for the coat. 

“Fine give me your phone, if I get the Wellerman then I get the coat.” Nico stays silent but hands his phone over sure that Percy will also get the whale. He might be the son of Poseidon, but that means he belongs in the sea, not the captain of a ship. Nico is jolted from his thoughts as Percy shouts out “Ha!” holding the phone up to Nico’s face, “I am the Wellerman!” Nico stares for a second then concedes, “Fine, you only get your coat back because its navy blue and not black,” he hands the coat to Percy who puts it on despite not wearing a shirt. Heading to breakfast Percy teases Nico, “You ready to go get some sugar, tea and rum?” 

Annabeth Chase woke up feeling well rested and peaceful. Sure, Nico’s yells echoed through the camp, but it wasn’t something new, and that was Will and Percy’s business, not hers. She had a cabin full of her own campers to worry about. Lying in bed, she could tell she was not the first one awake as socked feet quietly pad around the cabin, to the bathroom, to wake up a friend and to search for a lost shirt. This is what she loves, these quiet mornings full of excitement and optimism. The cabin is filled with the soft rays of the morning sun and Annabeth rolls over to find a camper staring directly at her, “I can’t find my shirt,” she says still wear her pajamas.

Sighing Annabeth gets out of bed, “Let’s go find you a shirt,” this happens a lot. The younger campers put down their shirt and someone picks it up thinking its theirs. She’s complained to Chiron for years about this, but Chiron says the shirts stay the same. Annabeth has no idea why he is so attached to the uniform neon orange. 

At breakfast Annabeth glances over at the Poseidon table, looking for an opportunity to hop over there and sees Nico and Percy in deep conversation. At first glance, her eyes pass over Percy to Nico who looks animated and is gesturing at his phone towards Percy. But Annabeth’s eyes skip back when she realizes Percy is shirtless. Wearing a peacoat with no shirt, Annabeth stomps over with the perfect excuse, not following dress code at breakfast. She couldn’t ask for a better excuse. Sliding onto the bench Annabeth bumps Percy’s shoulder, “Dress code violation at breakfast? I should write you up,” Annabeth teases. 

Percy smirks not embarrassed for being caught, and begins to button his coat leaving the top ones open, “As head counselor of the Poseidon cabin, I gave myself permission.” He leans back satisfied until Nico decides to get involved, “If she doesn’t write you up, I will.” Nico glances at Annabeth before going back to attacking his plate, “Head Counselor privileges, you know?” Annabeth chuckles, “what are you two looking at?” gesturing at Percy’s phone face up on the table, open to TikTok. 

“We’ve gone viral!” Percy says cheerily, instantly changing gears from the whole shirtless situation. “They made us into a Buzzfeed quiz,” Nico adds glumly. “He got the whale, I got the Wellerman,” Percy adds as Nico aggressively cuts his waffle. “Hence the peacoat,” Annabeth says instantly understanding, “Hence the peacoat,” Percy agrees nodding along. Nico’s back to scrolling his phone and Annabeth leans against Percy perching her head on his shoulder, reading his phone. “Why’d Hazel text: This is war?” 

“Someone explained the internet to her like it’s a competition, and she’s a roman, so now she views my video as a threat.” Percy answers with his mouth full. 

“What are they going to do? They don’t have a navy, a video on how to quickly dig a trench?” Annabeth scoffs, but instantly switches to calculating how to win. Giving Annabeth a knowing look, Percy stands up and shouts, “Leo, Travis! Come over here!” Chiron doesn’t look up from his meal even as a war is planned during breakfast.


End file.
